Part 4: There is a saying among authors: you might be a nice person, but you must be mean to your protagonist. Readers want to know what happens when your protagonist faces an impossible situation.

I thought the universe had gone too far with its Steve Jobs story by the time he arrived for a demo with Andy and Bill. NeXT had been forced to get out of hardware and his dream of running a computer company was over. Pixar had struggled with Disney and Toy Story after years of trying to be a hardware and then a software company, burning a lot of Steve’s savings.

I felt a little sad to see him in our lobby, knowing he would never achieve what he once had. He had wanted it so badly and had poured all of himself into it.